EAST LANSING, MI – It was only fitting that Beecher’s Mr. Basketball winner Monte “Man-Man” Morris would end his high school basketball career with a victory. If you haven’t noticed already, the kid is a winner.

He’s won titles on every level, dating back to elementary and middle school so there’s no way that Morris would let something like food poisoning stand in the way of that. Uh uhn.

Man-Man displayed his best MJ impression as he battled flu-like symptoms at the Breslin Center in East Lansing as Beecher won its second straight state title over Laingsburg, 40-39. Morris can now add two-time state champion to his already spectacular resume but a game-day sickness almost put that in jeopardy.

“It just hit this morning,” Beecher coach Mike Williams told the media. “I had no knowledge of it. We practiced last night and everybody was fine and well but they went over an assistant coach’s house and spent tonight together and then this morning they said a couple of our starters were sick. You could see that Monte was sick he could barely finish the game.”

In Morris’ final farewell, he ended with a game-high 16 points, two steals and two blocks – including a swat that saved the game in the waning seconds. Afterwards, he was unable to muster up enough energy to speak to the media. Morris was too sick to walk out of the bathroom as he skipped the post-game press conference.

However, there was nothing that needed to be said on his end. He did what he had to do to help his team win and that’s all that mattered. Period.

Morris has to go down as one of the Flint area’s greatest high school basketball players of all time. Individually, I’ll admit he wasn’t the most impressive. I’ve seen faster, more athletic and skilled players but the numbers don’t lie. Morris isn’t the MHSAA’s all-time leader in games played (109) or the area’s third Mr. Basketball recipient for no reason. He does what it takes to win games. The kid led his squads to the Breslin Center for the semifinal or championship in each of his high school seasons and he’s 2-for-2 in the finals.

Ever since he picked up the rock as a youngster in Buc-Town, he’s won. Just spend a little time talking to Man-Man’s Beecher middle school coach Wayne Rankins or his elementary coach Spencer Eason, now an assistant on Beecher’s varsity squad. His mother Tonya Morris will fill you in as well. The winning didn’t just start in high school. He’s been winner from the get-go.

“That young man did things that you wouldn’t normally see a middle school kid do coming right out of elementary,” said Rankins, who won two middle school championships with Morris as his point guard. “He just loved basketball and the things that he could do and see that floor at that age in the seventh grade and how coachable he was and how much he wanted to learn made him that tough.

“I’m very proud of him and I seen it at a young age that he had the material to do what he wanted to do.”

Whether or not that trend will continue for Morris in college at Iowa State University remains to be seen but what he did in high school was nothing short of spectacular. Pound for pound, he has to be compared to the greats. Like it or not, his high school career was legendary. With 97 wins and 12 losses, it’s hard to argue against that. Man-Man got the job done.